When women have power, they improve the lives of the people around them, starting with themselves and their families. For that reason, ADES started a Human Rights education process with more than 25 women from Santa Marta, Cabañas, with the purpose of training them to defend their rights.

Some of the participants are campesinas, many of them are older women, and some university students.

The facilitator of the process, Lila Alvarenga, shared that the intention of the space is to encourage the women to have autonomy over their own bodies, and to encourage exchange and show mutual solidarity for one another.

“We hope that with the tools developed in this process, they can become community leaders and form part of the organized structures in their communities, like ADESCOS, the Women´s Cooperative, and other initiatives.”

Neli Rivas is a young person who has participated in every Wednesday workshop. She says that sharing in these processes creates spaces of participation. “This process is formative because we can empower ourselves with knowledge about our human rights, we can become leaders, share our knowledge, and we can develop the skills that we already have.”

The process is taking place over nine workshops and includes activities focused on personal formation, reflections on human rights, and exercises to strengthen confidence and leadership.